A missile landed near a reactor. Moscow is sounding the alarm.
FSB Chief Orders Protection for Military Officials While Rosatom Warns of “Regional Catastrophe” Risk at Iranian Plant.
Russia will strengthen security for senior military officials, the head of the Federal Security Service said Thursday, as concerns mount over targeted assassinations and rising regional instability linked to the war in Ukraine and escalating tensions in Iran.
Alexander Bortnikov, chief of the FSB, told state-run TASS that enhanced protection measures are being introduced for high-ranking officers. The move follows a series of assassinations of Russian military figures and prominent supporters of the Ukraine war, some of which Ukrainian intelligence has claimed responsibility for.
The announcement came as another senior Russian official warned of the risks surrounding Iran’s Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant after a projectile struck near the facility earlier this week.
Alexei Likhachev, head of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, called for the creation of a safety zone around the plant, describing any strike on the site as potentially catastrophic. He said there are 72 tons of fissile material and 210 tons of spent nuclear fuel stored there.
“If an incident were to occur, it would be at least regional in scale and would affect a large number of countries in the Middle East,” Likhachev said, warning that radiation exposure would spare no party in the event of a serious accident.
Iran confirmed that a projectile struck near the Bushehr facility amid ongoing U.S. and Israeli airstrikes. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that a structure roughly 350 meters from the reactor was damaged but that the reactor itself remained intact and radiation levels were normal.
Bushehr is Iran’s only operational nuclear power plant. Rosatom constructed its first 1-gigawatt unit and is building additional reactors at the site. The company has already evacuated some personnel in recent weeks, with further reductions planned that would leave only a minimal staff presence.
Likhachev appealed to all sides in the conflict to designate the area an “island of safety,” noting that both the United States and Israel are fully aware of the plant’s coordinates.
The twin developments — heightened security in Russia and warnings over Bushehr — underscore how conflicts stretching from Ukraine to the Gulf are increasingly intersecting, raising fears that regional warfare could trigger broader strategic and nuclear risks.
